Recap: Live blog of President Obama’s speech to the Business Roundtable

December 3, 2014, 11:07 AM ET

Reuters

Read a recap of President Barack Obama’s speech to the Business Roundtable, as live-blogged by MarketWatch’s Rob Schroeder. Obama also took questions from the group, an association of chief executives of major U.S. companies.

Obama will be facing a skeptical audience today. As The Wall Street Journal reported, only about a dozen of the more than 200 executives gathered in Washington for the association’s quarterly meeting donated to either of the president’s two presidential campaigns.

Obama is speaking before the group as lawmakers are trying to finish a bill to keep the government open past Dec. 11, when current funding expires. Some conservative House Republicans may not vote for a deal being promoted by House Speaker John Boehner.

Meanwhile, a bill to extend expired tax breaks through the end of this year is gaining traction in Congress, with the House expected to approve it later today. The Senate would also need to approve the extension of the more than 50 breaks. Businesses – including the group Obama is speaking to today — wanted a longer extension.

On tax breaks, John Engler, the Business Roundtable’s president, told the Washington Post: “It seems unworthy of the world’s greatest economy to have a tax code for two weeks and in January it all expires again.”

The question was about corporate tax reform. Obama says the idea has been closing loopholes, bringing back some dollars “trapped outside the country.” There’s “a lot of overlap” with outgoing House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, Obama says.